ICC Note: While people from every political, ethnic, and religious background are suffering in Syria’s civil war, Christians have found themselves in a very unique and frightening situation, having widely chosen not to take up arms or to openly support either the rebels or the regime. Christians and their places of worship have been increasingly targeted by terrorist attacks, similar to what was seen in Iraq’s war that resulted in more than half the Christian population leaving the country following the US-led invasion in 2003. One woman said her husband and son were shot in the head just because they were Christians, CBN reports.
3/1/2013 Syria (CBN) -Syria’s 2,000-year-old Christian community is being devastated by the country’s civil war.
A Swedish journalist interviewed more than 100 Syrian Christian refugees in Turkey and Lebanon. They say Muslim rebel militia are driving them out because of their faith.
One woman said her husband and son were shot in the head just because they were Christians.
Syria’s population of 2 million Christians is the second largest in the Middle East after Egypt, and now whole villages are disappearing when Islamist rebels arrive.
Every week, hundreds of Syrian Christians arrive in Lebanon. A Lebanese patriarch said it is a ”great exodus taking place in silence.”
Meanwhile, Secretary of State John Kerry said the Obama administration will give the Syrian opposition an additional $60 million in aid.
Kerry said the United States will also for the first time provide food and medical supplies to the rebels fighting to remove President Bashar Assad.
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